Olbermann Who? MSNBC Abandons Neutrality Pose For Convention Coverage

Jeff Bercovici
,
Forbes Staff
I cover technology with an emphasis on social and digital media.

Rachel Maddow. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

Here's one indication of how much the news landscape has changed in the past four years: In 2008, with the presidential election heading into the home stretch, MSNBC pointedly took its top on-air personality, Keith Olbermann, off co-anchor duty in response to critics who said his coverage of the party nominating conventions was too partisan. In his place it assigned a straight-news reporter, David Gregory, to host coverage of the debates and election night.

The fig leaf of neutrality is no more. MSNBC just announced its on-air team for the upcoming Democratic and Republican conventions. Anchoring the broadcasts will be "Rachel Maddow with Chris Matthews," according to a press release. Matthews, who hosts the 5 p.m. show "Hardball," was Olbermann's co-anchor for the conventions in 2008, and "The Rachel Maddow Show" has replaced Olbermann's "Countdown" as the network's top-rated show.

To be clear, MSNBC's announcement called Maddow and Matthews hosts, not anchors, although I'm not sure that's a meaningful distinction. Phil Griffin, the network's president, wasn't available for an interview.

MSNBC has clearly settled into its identity as the liberal counterweight to Fox News over the past few years. But there are likely other reasons that Griffin is more comfortable having Maddow front the network's coverage than he was having Olbermann do it.

The open partisanship Olbermann showed on the air during the 2008 conventions -- most notably, when he blasted the RNC for including a tribute to 9/11 victims in its program -- was only part of what reportedly prompted high-ranking NBC News insiders such as Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams to call for his removal.

Olbermann also got into on-air spats with Matthews and with Joe Scarborough, and generally displayed the prickly, difficult-to-manage persona that ultimately led Griffin and NBC News chief Steve Capus to decide his high ratings didn't justify his continued employment. Maddow, by contrast, has never been known as a diva.